India not to accept China's demands on Arunachal silently:Tharoor

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor today said India was ready to continue bilateral talks with China on Arunachal Pradesh to solve the border issue but would not accept its demands silently.

Interacting with members of Merchants' Chamber of Commerce (MCC) here, the Minister said India had 13 rounds of discussions with China so far regarding Arunachal and was not averse to having more, but would not succumb to any kind of threats.

Mr Tharoor said Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India and it was largely reflected again in the recent Assembly elections in the state registering high turn out and hence no ''question of compromise'' arose.

'' China had no right to question Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal on the eve of the Assembly polls and India had rightly lodged diplomatic protest to deter the country from such activities, '' Mr Tharoor observed. He, however, said notwithstanding the ''border irritants,'' India was giving importance to economic and business cooperation with China focussing on IT and other related sectors.

He said two Chinese companies had started functioning in India and software giant Wipro and Infosys had also made inroads to that country hoping the trend would continue.

Referring to the issuance of ''stapled visas'' by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh, he said, '' The Government has taken note of it and measures have been taken. ''

-- (UNI) -- 31CA40.xml

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